Sep 3, 2006

quiet weekend with some progress


Pippi in her "new" old spot on DJ's desk chair--she thinks she is hiding, of course, even with that leg and tail stuck out. The chair and accompanying towel leave the tell-tale signs that she has been there. Reminds me of the time when one of DJ's golfing buddies caught him in the bright sunlight and commented about his backside being coated with pet hair.

We have not plans for the three day weekend--I guess being retired and me, not long back from my trip to TN, MO does not compel us to head off somewhere. A holiday weekend is not a big deal since we don't have a job to escape from. The hot weather will continue so we do not view it as the last summer weekend blow out either.

So I have made some progress on my Santa wall hanging. All the motifs are completed leaving just the 6 pine trees and the checkerboard pattern at the bottom on the piece--it measures about 15 x 22. If I don't get stalled out on the binding, I can count one personal UFO completed. I am going to toss two ancient ones that I have zip interest in and can get my hands on fairly easily.

And, I have taken your advise to "just do it" with the round robin. It " ain't been easy" to get it up to the point of the bridging strip. Not sure why this things looks like it is glowing unless the other layers of that bright yellow are showing through.

I had talked to Gary the robin leader about this and the wavy edges two weeks ago. No real advice there as this one has been a bit of a problem from the get-go. Do what you have to do to get it evened up basically. I got the measuring tape to it Friday afternoon--through the center it seemed to be relatively okay on the horizontal---but the edges measured almost a full TWO inches more in width. Vertically, much the same scenario. It was the corner units then that had to be the biggest problem. Armed with the seam ripper I dived in and dismantled one corner. I ended up taking a much bigger center seam (about 3/4 inch) with the yellow squares thinking that I had to lose an inch one corner. I put the corner triangle back on and trimmed it square and then eased it all in to make the yellow squares line up properly. After the 2nd one I was sure I was on the right track.

All of it needed to be trimmed down to a uniform width of border and some little strategic tucks taken on a couple of the outer seams to ease in the fullness at the edges--I am pretty sure she had cut the outside triangles as half square triangles rather than quarter square so there was some bias edge stuff going on. It is not perfect but it was far from that before. Fortunately that black fabric (poly cotton) that I have complained about for the past rounds is a blessing in some ways--hides the seam lines and the fact that the points are gone on the edges and we can fool the eye into just seeing that yellow. Well, the yellow is hard to miss--like the elephant foot prints in the butter, LOL.

Finally, finally last night after supper I could get a uniform measurement to cut the bridging fabric and apply the strips---unfortunately I sewed in the vertical side rather than the horizontal--no wonder I was having harder time getting it to fit, LOL. I stuck with it though my husband thought I should 1) refuse to work on it 2) toss it 3) give it back to the person who had created the problem. Gee, Honey, thanks for being supportive but it doesn't work that way.

SO finally I am at a point where I can actually do what I am required to do to this thing. 4 inch finished stars and/or log cabin units. I've got a pinwheel star picked out with spiky edges that should go well with her New York Beauty type center. These pieces are pretty small so I will foundation piece them especially with the long narrow pieces and points. Not sure how many I want to make, eight at the fewest. I am also not sure which colors yet as I need to fussy cut out some rusty/browny bits of a batik like print to put between them. As much as I would like to put some more turquoise or purple in there the fabric cues may lead in another direction. I think it will all be okay in the end. Boy, I sure hope so.

17 comments:

  1. *claps*

    Congrats on getting it evened out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Linda, all I can say is "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy". That has got to be the RR from way down under in the fires of Hades, Pikes Peaks and the Bad Lands all rolled into one!!!

    It sounds to me like you did an amazing job with it..and thank goodness it can move on....soon! The 15th will be here before we know it.*VBS*

    Cute pics of Pippi, as always, nice to see her again..*S*.
    No sewing as yet,other than more rug strips, but I've gotten quite a few household things done. IT's nice to be motivated about that again. Lost Friday to Steph and Saturday to Justin, but I've still got today and tomorrow..*S* Catch ya later Hugs, Finn

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad the RR debacle is about over for you. I can certainly feel your frustrations. I am mostly to a point where I only want to deal with my own work so those types of problems won't make me nuts *s* We try to never go anywhere on the holiday weekends. The traffic is just unmanageable and frustrating. There's nowhere to go that we can't see on another weekend, sans the masses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love reading your blog and seeing new pics of your quilts and cats. Your Santa picture would be great for as a wall paper. It has everything a quilter uses.I was having the same problem with a quilt border the other day,the edges were so wavy I couldn't believe it but I was not going to rip out as I was too tired so I just took in some tucks. You can't even see it because the fabric is so busy. It'll be a quilt for me anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It sounds like you are well on your way to conquering this round robin "challenge"! Way to stick with it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad that you have found a way to tackle that robin!

    ReplyDelete
  7. what a weight off your shoulders I'm sure! The owner will really appreciate the work you've done on her behalf, and the finished product will be much more useable as a quilt top. Kudos to you for sticking to it, and "biting the bullet" and all the other phrases for getting it done!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my Linda, I think you've gone above and beyond with this one. The owner will certainly thank you however - though she'll probably never know what all you went through. You deserve a gold star for this one! Glad you just bit the bullet and plunged in with it. Eager to see the final result.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Linda, you are a saint to spend so much time on that!!! Sounds like not all members are of equal sewing skill. You are an angel to make it all square!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. You know what I would have done with it *¿*

    You need a medal!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are sooo patient! I will watch for your next round with great anticipation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good job on fixing that RR problem!

    The pictures of the cat are so cute. They have such dignity even when they look ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  13. My hat's off to you, as well, Linda. You truly are a patient person. The owner of this RR will be happy you had a turn at it. Continued luck and inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Linda--you are a good person! It would have been so easy to send it back to the one who messed it up or slapped on a border and not cared about it. The owner of that quilt will never know what you did, but you do and that's what matters. Too bad more people in RR's aren't as conscientious. Kind of why I gave up on those. There were a lot of good quilter's involved, it was the few who weren't or didn't care that were the downfall.
    Kudos to you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well you are a good round robin participant and you certianly did more than your fair share!! Give yourself a big fat gold star for completing the repair. Seriously, I'd never do another RR with her as a participant or I'd make sure that the guidelines were very restrictive...100% cotton only, no paint, and it doesn't leave your hands unless it's square!!

    Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  16. glad to know you have finally sorted the problem out with the RR quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  17. You're almost done with it. That's the important thing. Just get it over with and you can send it on it's way.
    Good to hear you're working on some of your own things, too.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. If you comment will require a reply back, please include your email addy. Unless I am involved in a blog hop, my posts will be moderated and your comment will not appear until I am notified. THX for understanding--this option beats word verification!